New Zealand

New Zealand is an island nation located in the southern Pacific Ocean, just to the southeast of Australia. The islands were first explored by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642, and the islands were colonized by the United Kingdom under the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The indigenous Maori tribes tried to resist British colonization at times, but they were eventually put down by the British Army. New Zealand would become a dominion of the Commonwealth on 26 September 1907 after 67 years of being a part of Britain, and it gained its de jure independence on 10 December 1947 after adopting the Statute of Westminster. New Zealand became a developed country with a market economy, and the capital of Wellington became the cultural capital of the nation, while Auckland was the largest city. In 2016, New Zealand had a population of 4,725,330 people.